Wow...thats just amazing

My GR-55 arrived today, and I have spent a few hours playing with it. In fact time has flown by and its now 4-30am I was just entranced by it.

wow...just ..just wow.. it took a little while to fix the pickup to Margaret, my Patrick Eggle which is my main giging guitar, but it wasn't a massively difficult task, I was worried I'd positioned the pickup a bit too high but I tried it...and boom it worked fine. I was playing guitar, 12 string guitar, marimaba, grand concert piano and a shed load of effects in no time

Its simple to use, though you do have to be careful to leave the strings cleanly and fret them as you pick, since even a small hammer can be detected but it quicky becomes natural.

I LOVE this gadget...still a lot of things to learn...like how to get normal pickups to go through the effects bank making it an all in one unit. But that is just a case of reading the manual.

Yes, this will be an excellent single pedal does everything box. Gimme a bit of time to practice and I'll put something up on Soundcloud this weekend.

Can't wait to use it at the next Gadgets practice, we have a new guitar player on board who is learning our bits and bobs but being able to do keyboard and other fx will make a massive difference.


Ahthankyew

See this is what I want to do...

Ignore the slightly dodgy singing, I think it was a rather impromtu session, but I am just incredibly inspired by this. Ever since I discovered loopers (Trace Bundy's Sweet Child of mine 6 or so years ago) I've been wanting to produce things like this. Its just genius.

His straight guitar playing is also pretty amazing. What makes it so full and well produced is his use of the Roland GR-55 synth to provide drums and other fill effects as well as his brilliant guitar
playing


.


As its been holiday bonus month this month, I bought myself my usual indulgence; one of these GR-55s (ebay bargain, saved 200quid) mainly to add some keyboard sounds to my band the Gadgets.


But though I knew it could do keyboard sounds better than I could with an actual keyboard, I was amazed going through youtube for some videos of the thing in action, to find this guys vids including a useful setup tutorial. It really is an entire band in his hands in real time. I really really wish I could do stuff like this. I can't ..yet!

But its made me realise I need to focus a bit more. I experiment with too many things at once. Drums, keys, software, vocal toys, pedals etc.

My guitar playing has improved a lot in the last year or so, playing with 2 bands, I may not be able to knock out a tune on demand, as I still lack the musical memory and can't sing and play at the same time (working on that though), but there are other things I want to addess in my playing.

I am locked into blues patterns too much but thats no bad thing really.

If  I have the structure of a song in front of me I'm finding I can hold my own with others and do a fair bit of improvisation in solos but I can't play along by ear.

I have also settled into a specific guitar and pedal arrangment for these which I feel is sonically "me" when I am playing in the bands. But band members are not always there when I want to play my own stuff in my own style and if I am honest I don't have my own style yet and I doubt they'd be willing to play it :D

So its time now to specialise and develop my own style. I am going to focus a lot more on looping and song structure with the GR-55 and RC300 and no other pedals or toys, I don't plan to do any solo gigs...ever!!!

 But I am going to pretend I will and see if I can come up with a set of 10 songs that work within this structure and maybe, just maybe I will risk doing a performance. Its time to Master something and be really good with it.


I'm not abandoning my recording efforts, or my bands, but I am going to spend more practice time with me, the looper and the synth....it might be fun :D I might even sell off a few gadgets....hmmm maybe not.

Ahthankyew

I am still here

The strange colour is a small side effect to the post I put for my friend Peter's daughter who needed somewhere to host her tribute to her mum. It should go at the next monthly update, if not I will make a minor change to fix it but left it for now.

My mum hit 72 this week....she's still ticking, albeit with a few creaks and a lot more groans than I remember her when I was a kid. She and her 3 adult granddaughters (my daughte Danni and my 2 nieces Steph and Kelly) are coming over to stay with me in the Summer which will probably kill her, or me...4 totally different women in the house at one time will be interesting.

Been quite busy recently with work admin, exam prep and coding some work for students to use, which has been a total pain....at least next year I won't have so much hassle, but trying to fit in serious coding time with all the other admin stuff at work can be quite challenging.

But work has been good, finally getting on top of the admin has given me a chance to work with students more and the delivery of new Vita dev kits at the office opens up new learning goals for me.

I need to update my old scratchpad.net website now that I am officially a business here in NL, it should have my company details on there but it does not..I don't like doing websites myself and the host company's builder tool is useless, so am going to get a student to produce it. I can claim the cost back in tax (oh its good to have an accountant).

Not had a chance to work on my recordings either, things have been ticking over in a work/home/work/sleep kinda way. With Brenda working like mad to prepare for end of year exams we've not had much chance to do anything fun for a while. But I have had time to play with the bands and student jams and am really enjoying the release of work stess that provides.

I do need to make some changes to the studio upstairs though, not least get rid of the old broken tymble dryer in the middle of the room But also the mega pedal board needs to be retired, I've settled down to using certain pedals for most of my playing so the others are just gathering dust.. Time to unplug them and put them in a cupboard until I need to use them, which will clear a bit more space.

Logic Pro is still proving hard to master, though since I've not had a lot of time to practice I guess thats the main reason...holidays are coming though, and I may very well escape upstairs to avoid the cackling she devils who will be taking over. :D

But summer has finally arrived, for today at least..and that gives me a chance to go do some important shopping chores, new dryer, some duvets, cups cutlery at the dreaded Saturday Ikea...and shop around for a blow up bed etc for the visitors. Holiday bonus cash makes that all a little less painful too and has allowed me to treat myself to a couple of nice ebay bargains...guitar related :D


Ahthankyew

Posting this for Sabrina

'Missing Mom'

Who Is Mum?

• Fullname : Nor Amanah
• Age : 44 years old
• Birthday : 10 December
• She was born in Malaysia
• She has lived in Malaysia for her whole life
• Job : MD in an advertising agency

Note From Aaryan

A note from aaryan to you mama, mothers may a lot and us as children just hate that, because we hate it when they are right, but we learn to live through it and love our mothers till the end of time for they are the ones who brought us to this life and did not abandon us and that is why I will always love my mother. Your son Aaryan!

Note From ME!

I have lived with you all my life with you. You took care of me, watched after me and loved me. You would always be there when I needed you. For 15 years, not only were you my mother but also my father my best friend and my teacher. You were a single parent and had to do everything on your own but you still manage to find time for me and Aaryan. You made sure that we were always taken care of. I remember how worried you would be in the office. You had your own work to do but you still had time to help me with mine. You would come home and make me and aaryan help cook in the kitchen even if you were exhausted from work and we would be complaining. You did all this because you knew one day we would have to leave you and you wanted us to be prepared.
Now, I am here half way around the world from you. Somewhere totally unknown to me and I don't have you here to hold my hand and wipe my tears. I have to use everything you taught me I have to grow up and not depend on you anymore and mama I realise it is a hard thing to do. Sometimes I feel like I still need you, to tell me it will be okay and even if we are halfway across the world you still manage to do that. You are my hero mama and if I could be half a person as you then I know that I have succeeded in life!

The Video

Just before I left you had organise a birthday/going away party. You had invited everyone important in my life. I was glad that they could all make it because they had played a big role in my life. Along with that party you had made an 11 minute short video for me. That video was beautiful and very touching. During the party was the first time I watched that video it had brought tears to my eyes. Everyone at the party was crying during the party and tissues were flying everywhere. I would like to share the video with everyone! VIDEO

Oh thats nice, but still working on it.

Its been a lovely peaceful week off work, I have chilled, and chilled a bit more. Went to see Iron Man 3 (was brill) and been doing some nice recordings while Brenda has been busy studying like cazy. I don't get why Tilburg University has different holidays from NHTV but it is a pain that we can't seem to get the same days off.

At least this week we have a couple of synced bank holiday days at the end of the week so we'll ty to do something in this wonderful summer weather that has finally arrived.

I have been working on some more recordings, and have been putting together a version of Fleetwood Mac's, Man of the World...but all acoustic. Its shaping up into one of my best efforts so far, but I have a bit more work to do on it...and sadly getting ready to go back to work takes priority.

I am going to do a full multi track version with 3 guitars, bass and drums and some fx. It will be my biggest project yet but it is also surprisingly simple with the parts being quite clear and distinct. It should be a good test of my slowly improving Logic Pro skills..(I still find it madly complex though, but it does have a lot of fantastic features)

I love that Peter Green song, so sad and melancholy but so powerful and yet so damn simple, He really was a genius in his prime, he could do more with the 4 note intro to Need your Love so Bad than most modern guitar heroes do with 100. I might start a muscal project to do all the old Peter Green era FM songs....should only take a decade or 2.

I wish there were a PG tribute band I could join...maybe start, hmm the lack of singing might be a problem...however....I am going to try and take some singing lessons..I got in contact with a local singing teacher who is clearly mad and we're going to have a test lesson...he thinks eveyone can sing to some degree...I might shake that viewpoint somewhat...but if cant hurt to at least find out what my limits are ...no comments about opening my mouth please.




Ahthankyew

urgghh

I am just starting to get the hang of Logic Pro, starting...its really complex have done a couple of tracks now, this is the best so far, though can't really find a foolproof way to do vocals yet. I do really really hate the vocal on this, I did about 20 takes but just didn't get there. I do like the basic arrangment of this though and the solo at the end, is actually the same acoustic guitar doing the ruthm but run through a crunch blues setting to great effect. Ahthankyewe

What did I miss?

3 days of feeling poorly, fever, sweats, headache, snotty nose, general crappy ness... Finally broke this morning..and fingers crossed no mega cough, just a bit of phlegm. Hopefully a quiet day in and I should be back to work tomorrow. I don't really understand why colds here seem to be so harsh, a theory some of us on Facebook were suggesting was the lack of decent cold cures to suppress the worst symptoms before they add complications. The standard cure here in Holland is...paracetamol with caffeine and Vit C.. So you'd get the same result from popping some pain killers with coffee and eating an orange. Ie not much, though the paracetamol will keep the headache and fever under control that's about it. At least in the UK we get nice Beechams with all maxxed out goodies plus decongestants to dry you up and that for me is the killer. The runny nose and chesty cough needs to be kept at bay or it results in a motherfucker of a chest infection. The last one had me coughing for 8 weeks.. I'm going to get some UK cold meds to stock up my medicine drawer. And looking forward to getting out of the house again, been cooped up snoozing most of the time. Ahthankyew

Marking causes Colds...discuss

I am getting on well with the marking, RSI is bad but manageable, but I now have a cold...only a few weeks after recovering from the last one. My friend Soeren pointed out on Facebook that there may be a correlation.

He may have a point...Marking sucks my will to live, leaving me vulnerable to cold attacks.

What other horrors await my weakened immune system!!




Ahthankyew

productive weekend

Might as well make the most of it, marking hell next week and am I determined, RSI or not to get my grading done in record time

Anyway after doing a Tom Jones number I thought I'd have a go at a classic. The singing is variable of course but I like my own arangment of this... different and certainly something I might try and do better in future.




Ahthankyew

E-Bows are great

Give you that haunting harmonic sounds...love it.



Ahthankyew

And another EBAY fraud

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/121090422532?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649

not quite as vaulable this one, the source for the listing is all over the net, just paste in the 1st line of the description on google and you get a shed load of hits to other souces, in fact this one seems to be a common one, its listed on a lot of sales sites.

Again reported as fraud....but not expecting any response.


Ahthankyew

Spot the problem?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/251254477498?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2649


its not a genuine ad, shill bidders are ramping up the price and if some mug tried to snipe it they might be 3 or 4K down....its one of 4 I spotted over the last few days. All high value vintage guitars and all the same MO's .

0 feedback seller,
located in the US but offering UK postage charges
very high end vintage guitar, which if you google the text you will find on other sites and the pics are also fairly easy to spot on ebay US or craigslist.


ok so we know this happens...BUT EBAY DONT CARE... I reported each one as fake, even sent an email which they responted with an auto note, and worse still their online fraud reporting system terminates in a 404 page not responding error.

Disgraceful


update
It "sold" for 4100 in the end, after being shilled up over 3500 to last minute snipers thinking they were getting a 20K guitar for a faction of the price put in big final bids.. This of course is the con.

Also to add insult to injury....ebay suspended me from their forums for pointing out the fraud on line.
Sadly I have to conclude that ebay are as corrupt and dishonest as the scammers who are doing this, by igoring faudulent activity and preventing people from reporting it they are complicit in the crime.

I can only hope the "winners" take precautions and use a cedit card if they make payment...I suspect the sellers will try some ruse to get them to use cash tansfer methods, for me that would be a warning but others do fall for this. I will keep an eye on the sellers 0 feedback to see if it drops ot -1 over the comming weeks. I'll be happy to eat my words if it goes +1

I'd love to back up my indignation by boycotting ebay but I still buy a lot of goods via them, so for now I will try to do my best to warn people by posting dodgy listings when I find them



Ahthankyew

90.4 fading away

weight loss is slow but it is loss....so hey for me..

Been a busy couple of weeks and am now happily looking forward to a nice long easter weekend followed soon by a week off....even more hey for me. So lots to catch up on..

I am having major hassles with the bank though, getting the mortgage  transferred into my name has proven to be a nightmare of a job, after 1st forcing me to clear up my credit cards which took several months, the supposedly easy process has become harder and harder each step with documents I need, then don't need then need again and legal people who want to charge for translations then don't and then do and then don't and now papers I need but don't know anything about as well as insurance I don't have but need to get, all topped off with shockingly poor response from the ban advisor who is supposed to be implementing this simple process.

arrghh

Its all becoming a total pain and my patience with the advisor at the bank is running out, one more idiotic delay is going to result in a serious complaint to her managers.


The weather here has been shocking as it has back in the UK, very unseasonal, even yesterday as we went out for an end of week drink it was snowing...this hasn't helped my cough much, though am hoping it will be gone soon...just in time for the next cold!!

Not had much chance to record or practice, finishing off the block has taken all my time and making myself available to students usually means everything gets done at the last chance....even on Thursday I had students who were warned to book my time 2 weeks ago, asking to book my time...which was all used up....crazy

But time to get the guitar and bass strapped on and do some work. Both bands are now gearing up for the summer. We have 2 Starrcase graduation performances to get ready for in June, and the Gadgets with our new drummer, Asime, well in place, are now focusing on a proper set list in the hope of doing some pub gigs this summer...so proper practice schedules are being worked out. Some of them at my new fav rehearsal place in Rijsbergen http://www.jackbasspa.nl/

I have to do a little bass playing again with Starrcase since our bass player has taken a short absence...we hope not for too long my bass playing is still quite poor.

Both set lists are shaping up well and we will be practicing the new songs over the coming weeks, I even sing in one of the Starrcase numbers....poor graduates!!


On the home front things are breaking down...the washer and dryer both died last week, I was lucky and managed to revive the washer but the dryer is kaput...The heating and vent system also need looking at, the boiler keeps reporting an A16 error...whatever that means and needs resetting...uncomfortable if you are in the shower at the time. The vent is stuck on number 2 setting even if set to 1, so it looks like a short somewhere in the control cables.. for now I have just unplugged it. I just have to be careful not to let Brenda's burnt cooking set off the alarms :D (I never understand people who eat well done steaks...let along charred to the colour of coal!!!)

All this means expense...added to the normal expenses this month of rates and taxes its proving to be a bit of a strain on the old wallet..no guitar buying for me...and of course a bunch of wonderful bargains are showing up everywhere..

summer is nearly here though, with the warm weather and the nice summer bonus....just in time to bail me out.

Ahthankyew

Getting harder and harder to post these widgets in here..

heard this today and thought the chord progression was amazing so had a go at it, once I had the main loop in my RC300 I had to play and sing over it....its not bad for 1 take.


Ahthankyew

92.1 the countdown seems to be stuck

hmmm weight loss not really working yet. I suppose I have to do that gym thing....god I hate the idea....

I've had the most horrible chest infection for 3 weeks and am still coughing a bit, that and my wrist has stopped me doing the gym thing....
But the infection has started to pass and the coughing has reduced I can breath a bit better now...but the wrist is still a problem....drugs are not working :(

Oh and I have a new laptop for work...oodles of power but the mousepad is just too damn close to the keys and I keep tapping it...its worse than the old laptop....I'll be using a new ergo keyboard at work soon so hopefully I can avoid using the keys or try to change my typing angle and prevent the tapping problem

I hate changing laptops, its never a simple process there's always something not working right and we need to have all our work software up to speed. ICT normally ask you to hand over your old laptop when you pick up, but I held my ground and asked for a transition period. But still not quite ready to hand back.


The washing machine appears to have a problem, I think there may be a blockage in the pumping system, so am going to strip it down sometime this week, if that does not work...new machine time...I suspect a reapir will cost more than a new machine and since its 5 years old now maybe its time for a new one.




Ahthankyew

92.1 the countdown restarts

I am taking the 1st of March as a new start to the diet....I've been having a lot of photo's taken of me recently and simply don't recognise the fat bastard I see in them, also during band practice I caught sight of myself playing reflected in a large window.....my guitar actually was at a 30 deg angle resting on my fat tub....enough...the fightback must continue...low cal meals from now on, and as soon as this niggly left over from the cold chest infection has cleared up back to "gulp" gym.

target weight is 70Kg, I am not going to set dates, when it hits it hits, but I am quite determined to get in decent shape for our big graduation gig in June.........So no more snacks...well except when I am at the movies, as I was tonight...but thats it, for sure.



Ahthankyew

More drugs....

Doc wants to try some anti immflamatory painkillers for a while and I have to change my typing style...this makes sense, since its typing/playing games on keys that is causing the problem.

I will go buy a wired ergo keyboard from MediaMarkt or someplace that I can take to work with me since I have ergo key boards on my home comptuers and its really the work laptop thats the problem.

Ahthankyew

Now that kind of pain is not funny.

Its surprising how much more accurate my typing is one handed and one fingered....wait for the inevitable mistakes to start dropping in .....

My wrist is now officially fucked, another session of delayed marking which I could not put off any longer hoping it would get better, has left me crying with pain as any upward movement of my fingers is attempted..this genuinely is not funny.

I did a bit of guitar practice last night and it didn't hurt at all...today I dare not even look at a guitar, or a door handle or a fridge door, or a gig bag, or indeed any damn thing that requires movement of my wrist.

This is now most certainly a case of an RSI related problem and I really don't know where it will lead.

Doctors appointment booked for the morning, time to get something done.

Ahthankyew

More Man flu

Had a nice sunday roast dinner last weekend, though our portuguese friends didn't entierly understand the concept of a 3 oclock dinner and turned up nearer 4 having already eaten lunch...hmmm Lamb was ruined as it went cold waiting.....oh well.

But the point really was to have my friends who had recently become parents round to show off thier babies, and get the lastest news on the new methods of raising babies which raised some eyebrows, but hey ho, everyone does it their own way.  No more sterilising however seems a bit strange to me but seems thats the way it is now. Brenda got quite broody, I didn't :D But its nice to see babies Martins little girl is so like her dad its scary, quite unearving holding a miniture of a 6 foot+ bald scouser. I'm sure she'll turn out to be a beauty like her mum though.

Unfortunately one of them (Martin) brought a nice cold for me to incubate for a few days and have hit mid week, with the result that half my holiday has been spent wrapped up on the couch sniffing and coughing...I have a few more days to go, lets hope the dreaded chest infections I've had the last few colds don't take root.

My wrist has not improved, in fact its got quite a bit worse, due to being ill I've not picked up a guitar for a few days, when I did today, I just couldn't play it without pain....back to the docs I fear and some tests to see if this can be fixed.

Going to get drunk now, since I've run out of Lemsips....every little helps.

Ahthankyew

Once more leaping on the tech bandwagon

We had a very impressive turn out of staff and industry bods attend our ADE 10th anniversary #ade10
We heard a good speech from our dean Daphne and a short and moving speech from our old Dean Frank who founded ADE and gave thanks and recognition to those who worked with him. I like Frank a lot, always have.

And then we had a short video presentation from David Putnam, which was impressive but video is not really the same as having the man there as many of us 1st thought.

and then....

We had a talk from Tony Bosma @tonybosma about .......well what... I dunno really, it was kinda of a warning about the dangers of technology and data and robotics and ...well lots of stuff, but I truly failed to see his point. I found myself more irritated by the wealth of images and supposed danger signs of tech than intrigued.
Also deeply annoyed at a comment made on one slide that education was simply regurgitating knowledge...not really true of modern education, in fact not really true of education generally for quite some time.

For a futurist and trendwatcher he seemed to do nothing more that point out all recent reports about the amazing new tech and tech ideas then try  to shoot them down to prevent the "sheeple" from falling from it...from what exactly?

One basic point was valid, we all generally followers, or as he put it sheeple, we conform and as such we tend to become targets for marketing hype and advertising...but thats hardly new...ask any Roman emperor about that. They used the new tech of proclimations to ensure the people fell in line. Likewise the church and its adoption, eventually, of the new fangled printing press to print bibles and papal bulls to keep the masses in comfortable lines.
Yes it put a lot of hardworking scribes out of work but hey progress is there to indoctrinate us into the new and wonderful benefits of technology.

Yes technology does indoctrinate us, we do conform to the mass view, it also however educates and expands our minds and gives us the choice to conform or rebel.

Tech does put people out of work and for them its a threat, ask the scribes, luddites and fleet street printers...
But it also gives us benefits. Google is not, as was suggested a replacement for our brains...its a replacement for libraries, which in turn were replacements for the horribly unreliable but steadily employed soothsayers and oracles they replacedm, despite their dire warnings of the dangers of these new fangled.."book stores" they tried to burn down.

The idea that Hollywood will be replaced by robots making movies, or that people will willingly remove their limbs in favour of artifical ones is so far off the mark as to be comical.
Also conspirocy tracking theories about micro chips and GPS have been around for ever...partly true perhaps, we can track people down with thier phones and facebook checkins,  but this is still some way from being a big brother world.

Tech has benefits...tech has risks....but I think blinding yourself to the benefits is a bit silly, otherwise we'd never be able to hook up our macbooks to the interwebbins with our laser pointer/clickers to be able to explain the dangers of this new fangled tech.

I could rant on and on about it, but so many points were covered that I'd lose my train of thought quickly...many of us there were very uncomfortable with this talk, it just seemed too pointless. And furthermore, aimed at a tech savvy , tech hungry and creative independant thinking audience who do understand, appreciate and use this scary tech, it was rather inappropriate.

So to control my rants to less than 140 characters.....I (re)joined twitter (you were wondering about the @ and # symbols weren't you mum?) and made my point. The talk was not very good, and I'd hate for me and my acadamy to be associated with it without some dissent, so I want to go on the record...that I didn't agree with it.

I had joined twitter in December but didn't really see the point....but for this it serves its purpose
Probably won't bother with it though, not to keen on this new fangled twitter stuff, you don't know whos watching do you!
I'm not entierly sure its safe! Think of the children.

Ahthankyew